Sunday, October 09, 2016

Q: Name a famous actress of the past — first and last names, 10 letters altogether. Change one letter in the first name and one letter in the last. The result is a two-word phrase naming a food item often found in a kitchen cabinet or refrigerator. What is it?

168 comments:

Here's my standard reminder... don't post the answer or any hints that could lead directly to the answer (e.g. via a chain of thought, or an internet search) before the deadline of Thursday at 3pm ET. If you know the answer, click the link and submit it to NPR, but don't give it away here.

You may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't give the answer away. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the Thursday deadline. Thank you.

Name a famous actor of the past — first and last names, 10 letters altogether. remove his first name and one letter from his last name to reveal name of a citrus fruit that you might squeeze into a gin and tonic.

Here's the (slightly edited) description for what I'll be watching tonight:

Teenagers stumble across a prehistoric caveman, who goes on a rampage. The misunderstood Neanderthal [] falls in love with the daughter. When a frisky [caveman] expresses what seems to be romantic interest in [the teenage girl], her father, fearful that the creature may kill them both if he is rebuffed, suggests she put up with as much of it as she can bear. . The horny caveman has other plans for [her].

He wears his hair in a ridiculously exaggerated greasy blond pompadour and is presented as something of a teen idol, fawned over by the ladies and prone to engaging banter. [Witnesses consider when the caveman] lolls his tongue around and laps up shaving cream, to be one of the most disgusting things they've witnessed during their time. [Some] speculate that some kind of romantic relationship existed between [the father] and his on-screen daughter [], due to the uncomfortably non-familial chemistry in their scenes together.

[The caveman] follows them back to civilization, a final confrontation ensues, and he is killed.

The great thing about [this] is that it's memorably awful. Even for a bad [story], there's something so unique in the dopiness of this strange tale about a caveman loose in the arid wastes of [America]. Once you've seen it, you'll never forget it.

Just got it! You do have to look up deceased actors and actresses to get this one! Apologies all around for my previous posts. We've been busy babysitting, and my niece kept watching some "Sofia the First" thing on the Kindle, or something like that. As I am writing this, the Kindle is still plugged up and recharging. Again, I apologize. A little preoccupied, I guess you could say.

What's to say? It's been an interesting election cycle. Moved the New York Times to print obscenities on page 1. But, over all, is it more extraordinary than electing the first woman president? Or the first African-American? Or the first election decided by the Supreme Court? Bill Clinton was impeached, Nixon resigned, Kennedy was assassinated. An apparently endless source of entertainment.

I enjoyed the question about energy from the guy in the red sweater and hated the lurking over Hillary Clinton by DT.

I thought the moderators could have asked DT another question to clarify about the "locker room talk" vs. sexual assault. But, DT would not have answered that anyway because he doesn't see his behavior as illegal. Disturbing.

DT's comments about jailing Mrs. Clinton were quite distressing.

At least they ended on a positive note. Though, DT's previous wives get most of the credit for raising the kids.

It wasn't really a debate, but an unsurprising argument between two of the most unattractive and least qualified candidates in US history. And not moderated, but egged on.Then scores of talking heads jabbering ad nauseum about what we should think about it.What I think is that we are screwed.

Although I am a Democrat and prefer to have Bernie Sanders on the ticket because I am not all that happy with the Clinton politics, I think it is complete nonsense to say Hillary Clinton is not qualified to be president. She is probably the most qualified candidate for this office ever. She was married to a president who was in office for eight years and very involved during that time, and then she was a U.S. Senator and then Secretary of State for 4 years. Be realistic.

What I find most interesting about Trump is that he resides in Trump Tower. It seems to me he would be much more comfortable if he moved into one of the many trailer parks scattered around the country. Perhaps one in Idaho or Nevada. That way he would most likely find lots of friends who share his way of thinking.

I have always been adamantly against war, and that is one of the major complaints I have about Clinton, but that has zero to do with her qualifications for the office. You are adding apples and oranges.

Sure, at times I think HC might be the lesser of two evils but just look back to Georgie W. and his henchmen, and she doesn't look too bad. Who knows what the future may bring but I sure would feel very nervous with DT at the helm when it comes to him being in control of our armed forces and nuclear stockpile.Besides, as I see it, DT would put himself in charge of the high-profile PR duties and glamour jobs leaving Pence in charge of the day to day legislative chores. Now that would be a true disaster!

You should know, WORD Woman, that attractiveness need have nothing to do with physical appearance.And, as we will all find out, Hillary is not going to be a good president, unless you have a lot of money and think American exceptionalism is good for children and other living things.You lamented no debate talk and I regret speaking up.This is really after all not the place for such a discussion.

This IS the place for this discussion. Nothing is more important than how we choose our leaders. Not even the NPR puzzle. Or perhaps you have a public square where you live so people can meet and discuss important things in public, but I doubt it.

Hillary has plenty of experience for the job, a lot of it not so good. But we in California have the luxury of the Electoral College to let us vote our conscience.

While the fall of the short-fingered vulgarian is a joy to see, I worry more about the Republican's Operation Crosscheck, mostly behind the scenes, to remove people's registration, where the real voter fraud is occurring. If you live in one of the states identified here, make sure you are still registered. And make sure folks who are in minority communities haven't had their rights stolen. In many ways (and for only 1 reason) this clever and illegal campaign is aimed at them.

While a national popular vote is more democratic, I think we would be wiser to have a Constitutional Amendment to ensure it's longevity. I worry that while the folks at NPV may be right that an Amendment is not required, as each state legislature chooses its method for selecting Electors, there's way too much room for hanky-panky. Suppose California (or NY, etc) chooses its Electors distribution based on popular vote, and the Dem wins in a landslide with 65% of the vote. 34 for the Dem, 19 for the Repub. But should Texas and a bunch of Repub states revert to winner take all (which they might do at the last minute, leaving other states no time to change their rules), the Dem's will lose the White House.

Big advantage of the Electoral College: if you live in a solid blue (or red) state you aren't tortured with the advertising!

I believe the NPV bills are worded to prevent the scenario you describe. The award of a state's Electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote is binding only if states with a majority of Electoral votes comply. If enough states renege or fail to adopt NPV, you're just left with the current Electoral College system.

What has me most worried, now that Trump has seemingly shot himself with the silver bullet and Hillary Clinton will most likely win, is that she is also very unpopular and will most likely have a very tough time getting a second term even if she frees the world of nuclear weapons, ends war and solves climate change. The people of this country are very stupid in general. This is self evident by their presidential choices in the past along with their continuing admiration of Ronald Reagan and even George W. Bush and Nixon too for that matter. For some incomprehensible reason the public is driven, like lemmings to the cliff, to change parties periodically for no logical reason. People are very dissatisfied in this country, and in many cases for the wrong reasons, as most here are probably aware. Trump is an obvious clown, as was Hitler, but Paul Ryan is not so obvious to the masses, but is still just as evil and destructive. This is what has me worried the most at the moment. Our most pressing problems now are nuclear proliferation and climate change. Did you hear them discussed in any of the debates? Remember Easter Island. I suspect it was the canary in the mine.

I just found the time to read the first parts of the coincidence article and found it unconvincing for the most part. It is correct about meeting people with the same birthday and name and simple things like that, but I have had a lifetime of totally unbelievable coincidences that are far more complex and astounding than those the author is talking about. I run into people with my birth date frequently and never considered it much of a coincidence, especially when I found I was born on April 3, which is nine months after the Fourth of July. Not nearly enough room here for me to go into detail about even one of my startling coincidences.

I'll take the room that SDB left. During the filming of The Wizard of Oz, when the wardrobe department was looking for a coat for Frank Morgan (Professor Marvel / The Wizard), they decided they wanted one that looked like it had once been elegant but had since "gone to seed." They visited a second-hand store and purchased an entire rack of coats, from which Morgan, the head of the wardrobe department, and director Victor Fleming chose one they felt gave off the perfect appearance of "shabby gentility." One day, while he was on set in the coat, Morgan idly turned out one of the pockets and discovered a label indicating that the coat had been made for L. Frank Baum.

Mary Mayer, a unit publicist for the film, contacted the tailor and Baum's widow, who both verified that the coat had at one time been owned by the author of the original "Wizard of Oz" books. After the filming was completed, the coat was presented to Mrs. Baum.While this blurb is taken from IMDB, you can find this and many more details about the making of that movie in Aljean Harmetz's book of the same name.

"Jam" was the give away clue this week. I immediately recognized it as a key word, since it's almost never used in conversation. This led directly to jelly, then grape jelly. "Preserves" and "Waffle house" were more elegant, but not give aways. As usual, I have no idea what Blaine's clue means.

Hmmm. It's a Gregory cartoon from The New Yorker. A doctor sitting at his desk, diplomas on the wall behind him. Sitting on a chair facing him is a pumpkin. The doctor says, "It's a very simple procedure. We slice off the top of your head, scoop out your innards with a spoon, and carve out your eyes and mouth."

David, who comments often on Blaine's blog, has contributed NINE (!) wonderful puzzles to this week's Puzzleria!... which has just now been uploaded. Click "Joseph Young's Puzzlria!" on Blaine's Puzzle Links.

In addition to David's gems are eight other not-so-gems, including three that involve very recent news headlines.

It fits perfectly with a narcissistic personality disorder. He can't take the blame for anything, whatever good that happens is because of him, and all things bad are because of somebody else. It's remarkable how much this is echoing with Hitler; when things turned in Russia it was always the fault of the generals (read: RNC, Paul Ryan etc). In the dying days of the 3rd Reich some asked Hitler to give relief to the citizens in Berlin, and he more or less responded that anyone who hadn't died fighting didn't deserve to live. Or something to that effect.

My fear is that when DT loses he will not go down gracefully, as every other candidate in our history has done. Unlike every other loser he will question the legitimacy of the election (yes, Al Gore had real complaints) and he will rally his followers into something unsavory. And dangerous.

Someday, maybe in the distant future, three guys are going to be in a basement of Trump Tower cleaning up whats left of the Donald's empire, shoveling old things into the incinerator. One will pick up an old stuffed animal and showing it to the second guy asks "I wonder what was so great about this?". The second guy will pause for a second and say "who knows it's just a little kitty cat, I'd pitch it with the rest of this stuff"! And so, the the dynasty will come to an end...

But then, the third guy says "maybe we can give it to some kid who can respect this kind of thing"!

eco: Your scenario may well be prophetic.It is likely the talking yam will lose, but that won't bother his supporters at all since it was fixed, of course. As I said months ago and this week the chances are overwhelming that we are screwed.

“If she’s in office, I hope we can start a coup. She should be in prison or shot. That’s how I feel about it,” Dan Bowman, a 50-year-old contractor, said of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee. “We’re going to have a revolution and take them out of office if that’s what it takes. There’s going to be a lot of bloodshed. But that’s what it’s going to take. . . . I would do whatever I can for my country.”

Next week's challenge: This is a two-week challenge. Take the digits 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1, in that order. Using those digits and the four arithmetic signs — plus, minus, times and divided by — you can get 1 with the sequence 5 - 4 + 3 - 2 - 1. You can get 2 with the sequence (5 - 4 + 3 - 2) x 1.

The question is ... how many numbers from 1 to 40 can you get using the digits 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 in that order along with the four arithmetic signs?

You can group digits with parentheses, as in the example. There are no tricks to this, though. It's a straightforward puzzle. How many numbers from 1 to 40 can you get — and, specifically, what number or numbers can you not get? I'll reveal my solution in two weeks.